The mission of Patriot battalions and batteries of the US armed forces is to provide air defence artillery protection against all types of airborne threats to critical assets and manoeuvre forces belonging to corps and to echelons above corps. Because of the Patriot's firepower, range and altitude capabilities, the normal role of the Patriot system is to accomplish the air defence mission within very low-altitude to very high-altitude boundaries.

This publication describes the tasks, the organisation and the vehicles of the Patriot system. This includes not only its primary assets, the launching station and radar station, but also the numerous specialised trucks of the HEMTT, M939 5-ton and HMMWV families in great detail.